Last May 26th, the Engineering Fair of the University of Salamanca was held. During this event, proffesors of the Higher Polytecnic School of Avila, researchers from the TIDOP unit and reseachers of the Cátedra Iberdrola VIII Centenario showed some engineering advances.

Last May 26, the Engineering Fair of the University of Salamanca was held at the new I+D+i building of the University. The event, organized by the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit, was focused on the dissemination of: (i) the educational offer in engineering at that University, specifically on the university campuses of Ávila, Béjar and Zamora, and (ii) most relevant results and projects developed in that University, specifically by the TIDOP Research Group in Ávila.

The engineering offer at the campus of Ávila is currently:

B.S. degree in Civil Engineering

B.S. degree in Mining and Energy Engineering

B.S. degree in Civil Engineering and Mining and Energy Engineering

B.S. degree in Geocomputing and Geomatics (new)

M.S. degree in Geothecnologies applied to Arquitecture and Engineering (On-Line)

PhD. program in Geotechnologies Applied to Construction, Energy and Industry.

The new B.S. degree in Geocomputing and Geomatics is unique in Castile and Leon and the second at national level. It will start next academic year (2018-2019). For more information see:

Regarding the most relevant results and projects showed during the event, highlighted those developed within the framework of the Cátedra Iberdrola VIII Centenario. This project, managed by the distinguished researcher Susana Lagüela López, aims to develop different alternatives for a decarbonized and electrified energy horizon. First advances consisting in the calculation of solar potential of the roofs of residential buildings were showed during the Engineering Fair. In addition, the operation of photovoltaic cells and panels were shown thanks to an available solar trainer.

New published on 06/07/2018

The program is funded with a total of 474.189 € and in its execution work together the University of Aveiro (Portugal), the Polytechnic Institute of Burdeos (France) and the spanish companies Plásticos Durex and New Fire Ice

The University of Salamanca leads the international project of innovation for the intelligent and sustainable growth of the plastic industry in the European Southwest Space “INTERREG SUDOE COMPRESSer”, whose meeting celebrated in the USAL was chaired by the Vice-Rector of Research and Transfer, Susana Pérez Santos.

The total budget of this project comes to 474.189 €, being the main researcher of the initiative Roberto José García Martín from the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Salamanca. Also takes part research staff from the higher Polytechnic School of Zamora, the higher Polytechnic School of Avila and the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering of Béjar, developing together with the University of Aveiro (Portugal), the Polytechnic Institute of Burdeos (France), and the spanish companies Plásticos Durex and New Fire Ice, among others entities.

This project pretends to offer an innovative solution within the containers used to store liquids and pressure gases in the European Southwest Space, being an important part of the industrial activity.

The goal of INTERREG SUDOE COMPRESSer consists in the development of new pressure containers manufactured with composite materials (MC), providing an innovative solution regarding the most advanced technologies of the market.

For this reason, the main challenges that must overcome the project, are the complex design using accurate modeling techniques to reduce it, the development of more profitable and efficient models in order to reduce the cost of using MC, and the multifunctionality of MC, that it will be enhanced with nanocomposites and techniques to improve the electrical conductivity.

In addition to the aforementioned collaborating entities, to this initiative the next entities are added to strengthen the link with the market and the knowledge transfer: Cualitis Formación S.L. (Spain); Hoya de la Vega S.L. ‘EXTISAL’ as trademark (Spain); University of Santiago de Compostela Applied Financial Assessment Group VFA (Spain); Pôle de compétitivité EMC2 (France); and Composite Solutions LDA (Portugal).

With all this, the obtained final product will be an innovative solution with great potential in the competitiveness of the plastic industry, in the MC and in the manufacture of pressure vessels in the SUDOE space. Thus, the new container will offer a higher benefits of use, healthiness and costs of the current containers, that can be used in several sectors as the hospital sector, the automotive industry or the food industry, among others.

The research project REVELADUERO has been granted with the “Innovadores 2018” award

On April 12, the head of the TIDOP Research Group, Diego González Aguilera, collected the “Innovadores 2018” prize for the REVELADUERO research project. Through this project, a free software tool has been developed for the precise control of the water resources of the Duero Hydrographic Basin. REVELADUERO uses satellite images and cartographic data from the SIGPAC and the Duero Hydrographic Confederation as well as information about the declarations of the owners of the agricultural plots. Thanks to this software, the Duero Hydrographic Confederation can efficiently control and manage the water of the basin in an area of around 80,000 km2.

The project of the VIII Centenary of the University of Salamanca starts its activity with a total of four researchers

After the selection process of the call Cátedra Iberdrola VIII Centenario offered by the University of Salamanca, the research group responsible for the progress of works has been constituted. All derived developments will be published and evaluated annually until 2022. The research will be focused on providing alternatives for a decarbonized and electrified energy horizon. Thus, the first steps seek the development of a comprehensive tool to manage solar energy production based on the existing energy demand, according to the availability of that resource in each area.

The use of infrared thermography as a widely tested technique for building inspection and location of pathologies such as air leakage and moisture allows the performance of quality “in-situ” visual examination of the objects under study due to the possibility of obtaining real-time results, being able to detect without difficulty damages or material characteristics. This qualitative measurement technique provides the capability of doing quick, effective and non-destructive inspection without direct contact with the object under study, decreasing the risk of incidents to operators and the damage of the objects comparing with other intrusive techniques. Furthermore, the utility of infrared thermography as a measurement technique has been proved by its use for the determination of the thermophysical properties of materials such as diffusivity and thermal transmittance.

In the qualitative approach, some authors have performed in-situ studies, mainly in historical buildings or cultural heritage elements, whereas quantitative studies are performed mainly in laboratories with limited size samples. In those cases where quantitative thermography studies were performed in-situ, temperature values were employed in order to obtain the real thermophysical properties (thermal conductance) of the building envelope, but their spatial distribution is not considered.

Combine both applications will enable the automation of the heat loss computation from the measured temperatures with a thermographic camera. Thus, the thermography is not only used to represent the state of the wall, but also temperature values represented on the thermography for extracting the metric parameters of the study object so the hybridization of the thermographic information with precise cartographic material would allow to extract the actual geometry of the object of study with thermal texture, being able to make accurate measurements of the elements of interest directly on the obtained results.

Studies such as the one published by EuroACE in 2010, places improved energy efficiency in building construction at the top of the list of actions that need to be taken to reduce greenhouse gases and energy costs, in addition to acting as a stimulus to generate employment. In particular is the case of existing buildings stock, most of which dates back to the period 1940-80, constructed using non-existent standards and scarce resources. Here, energy refurbishment works could represent a saving of up to 75% in energy consumption. In Spain there are 13 million homes that could be the subject of intervention, where energy refurbishment could result in a reduction in sector emissions of 34% compared to 2001.

In urbanized Western Europe trees are considered an important component of the built-up environment. This also means that there is an increasing demand for tree inventories. Laser mobile mapping systems provide an efficient and accurate way to sample the 3D road surrounding including notable roadside trees. In this research line, a processing chain aiming at the extraction of tree locations and tree sizes from laser mobile mapping data is reached.

Vegetation extraction

Tree parameter extraction

Such steps, in combination with code optimization are expected to be sufficient to reach the final goal of automatized estimation of features sampled by mobile mapping at a rate that matches the acquisition speed and at a quality that matches the result of a human operator.

An Archaeology graduate having studied in the Complutense University of Madrid, he is currently finishing his Master’s degree in Quaternary Archaeology and Human Evolution in the University Rovira I Virgili, Tarragona. Starting next academic year, he intends to continue his professional career by enrolling in a Doctoral programme in prehistory. Specialised in the field of taphonomy, he works primarily on the microscopic study of osteological materials found in archaeological and paleontological sites. His main field of research lies in the development of new methods for the study of Lower Pleistocene sites in Africa. Over the last couple of years, he has focused his research on the adaptation of new statistical advances from other fields of research, such as Artificial Intelligence, with the hope of finding new means of applying these techniques to the prehistoric fossil register. Through this line of research, he has achieved the development of Machine and Deep Learning algorithms for the processing of 3D data. His most notable advances have included the development of Artificial Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines for the differentiation of carnivore activity through the tooth marks animals may leave on bone. He has also achieved models that are able to successfully classify microscopic traces, discerning between natural agents and those produced by ancient hominids in prehistoric butchery practices.

Research lines:

Taphonomy and zooarchaeology applied to the Lower Pleistocene

Development of new methodological approaches for the study of fossil remains

Design and application of new statistical models for archaeological studies, including 3D modelling for the documentation of bone, and the use of Artificial Intelligence algorithms for the processing of this data

Land drones applied to three-dimensional modeling and control of complex industrial environments

Land drones can be armed with different devices such as terrestrial laser scanner, obstacle detectors or remote control systems, in order to provide accurate 3D models of unattended or critical environments in a safe way.

Environments like narrow caves that are difficult to access, electrical substations where there are risk of electric shock, boiler rooms or buildings with structural problems are considered critical environments for human operators due to the danger they entail.

Despite being critical spaces, its maintenance, inspection and control are essential to prevent damages and detect breakdowns, so accurate three-dimensional models are indispensable. For this purpose, terrestrial drones allow the integration of terrestrial laser scanners to capture the environment, as well as obstacle detectors and different communication systems, so that they can be autonomous vehicles or remote-controlled vehicles.

Depending on the accuracy needed and the dimensions of the study case, two different combinations of technologies have been explored, both combining laser scanner with land drones.

To complete this research line, we are working in different methodologies to combine 3D models obtained with land drones and data obtained with aerial drones equipped with conventional cameras or thermo graphic cameras.

Mix both kind of models make the three-dimensional model much more complete and it is possible to detect pathologies in almost everywhere. Some of this process has been used with success in electrical substations and photovoltaic solar plants, detecting, for example, anomalies in some panels.

Titled the first of his promotion as Senior Technician in Telecommunications and Computer Systems in 2018 by the IES Vasco de la Zarza. He obtained the Cisco degree “CCNA Routing and Switching” with a letter of recommendation from the Cisco CEO thanks to his skills and knowledge shown in the field of computer networks with Cisco equipment. Currently he is studying a Superior Degree Formative Cycle in Multiplatform Applications Development at the IES Alonso de Madrigal, focusing on the programming and development of computer applications.